Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ear pad and a headphone using the ear pad.
Background Art
A headphone formed such that a pair of right and left headphone units is coupled with a head band or a neck band is worn by pressing the headphone units against a temporal region or pinnas of a user by an elastic force of the head band or the like. Ear pads for enhancing wearing feeling of the headphone are attached to the headphone units.
The ear pad is important as a member that determines the wearing feeling of the headphone, and is also important as a member that improves sound quality. As the ear pad, there is one formed such that a low rebound and soft cushion material is formed into a ring shape, and an external surface thereof is covered with a skin made of a nice and soft material. In such an ear pad, enhancement of flexibility of the cushion material serving as a main body of the ear pad is considered to enhance the wearing feeling of the headphone. However, the ear pad formed of the cushion material having small coefficients of restitution and elasticity, that is, the low rebound and soft cushion material is substantially deformed when an external force is applied to the headphone in a worn state, and thus the worn state becomes unstable. Accordingly, position shift of the headphone or the like is caused, and the wearing feeling is impaired.
JP 2012-169825 A describes a configuration to suppress the deformation of the ear pad and to easily maintain the worn state. That is, JP 2012-169825 A describes a headphone having an ear pad in which a second cushion material is elastically deformed when a side pressure is applied, and a first cushion material is further elastically deformed while the second cushion material remains elastically deformed when a larger side pressure is applied.
The ear pad described in JP 2012-169825 A can improve the wearing feeling if the thickness of the cushion material having small coefficients of restitution and elasticity and adequate flexibility, of the two-layered cushion materials, is increased. However, in a case of using this structure for an ear pad of a small portable headphone, dimensions of the cushion materials are restricted, and the thickness of the cushion materials has a limitation. Further, in the case of a small headphone, the size of the entire ear pad also has a limitation. Therefore, if a user having a large ear uses the headphone, the ear pad cannot cover the ear and may apply compression to the ear, and a gap is caused between the ear pad and the temporal region and the degree of sealing may be decreased.
If the ear pad cannot cover the ear and applies compression to the ear, the wearing feeling is impaired. Further, if the ear pad of the small headphone is made to have a size to be able to cover the ear, the ear pad becomes large and thick, and thus a design property is impaired.
Further, as an element that determines the sound quality of the headphone, a front space of a baffle plate, that is, a volume of a space surrounded by the ear pad, the baffle plate, and the pinna is an important element to maintain acoustic performance. The volume of the front space is maintained by the ear pad. Therefore, if the ear pad is made soft and easily compressed, placing significance on the wearing feeling, a bad influence is provided to the acoustic space. Meanwhile, if the ear pad is too hard, the degree of sealing by the side pressure is decreased, and thus the hardness causes a decrease in the acoustic performance.